Lord Lovat

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Lord Lovat is a title in the Peerage of Scotland dating to 1458. It is held along with the title of Baron Lovat in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.

In 1697, after the 9th Lord Lovat died, Simon Fraser, his brother, kidnapped and forcefully married the late Lord's widow, the former Lady Amelia Murray, only daughter of the 1st Marquess of Atholl. However, Lady Lovat's powerful family, the Murrays, were angered, and prosecuted Fraser, who fled the country. Fraser was convicted in absentia, attainted, and sentenced to death. Due to his attainder, he could not succeed to the Lordship when the 10th Lord, also his brother, died.

In 1715, however, Fraser supported the Government against a Jacobite uprising and was rewarded by being pardoned for his crimes. In 1730, he won litigation seeking to confirm his title of Lord Lovat. In 1745, however, Lord Lovat participated in The '45 against the Crown and was therefore sentenced to death. He was beheaded on Tower Hill in London, becoming the last man to die in this manner. His titles, furthermore, were forfeit. (He had been created Duke of Fraser, Marquess of Beaufort, Earl of Stratherrick and Upper Tarf, Viscount of the Aird and Strathglass and Lord Lovat and Beaulieu in the Jacobite Peerage of Scotland by James Francis Edward Stuart (titular King James III of England and VIII of Scotland) in 1740.)

Later, in 1837, Thomas Fraser, who would have succeeded to the title but for the forfeiture, was created Baron Lovat, of Lovat in the County of Inverness, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. In 1854, the attainder of the 11th Lord was reversed, and Lord Lovat became the 12th Lord Lovat in the Peerage of Scotland. The two peerages remain merged.

The numbering of the Scottish Lordship used by Clan Fraser differs from the legal numbering in that it ignores the attainder of 1747—1854, with the result that the 16th Lord is termed by them "18th Lord Lovat". [1] [2] [3]

The Lordship of Lovat has for some time been linked to the Chiefship of Clan Fraser.